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**U.S. Ambassador to Equador, Todd Chapman met with U.S. Meat Export Federation officials last week to discuss market conditions in Ecuador and ideas for expanding U.S. beef and pork exports to that market.

Ecuador reopened to U.S. beef in 2014 following a BSE-related closure that lasted more than 10 years with prohibitive tariffs on many imported food products, including a 45 percent tariff on beef and pork products.

Ecuador’s tariffs have been gradually phased out in 2017 and on June 1 fell to zero.

**No new U.S. milk producers have been allowed to enter the growing Chinese market for more than a year, but that’s about to change.

A shift in Chinese policy still blocks U.S. dairy from getting the clearance they need to export milk to China, but according to U.S. dairy officials, a breakthrough is expected in a matter of weeks.

US Dairy Export Council President Tom Vilsack says a new deal will give immediate clearance for 80 U.S. processors to begin shipping milk to China.

** Even with its strict production quotas and guaranteed high milk prices, dairy farms in Canada are disappearing at a rate not far below what is happening in the United States.

The country’s latest Ag census shows a 14 % decline in the number of Canadian dairy farms from 2011 to 2016, compared to 18.5 % in the U.S. over that same period.